I'm working on the "brain method" and could you explain the evolution of the sensations, feelings, up to the projection.

On working the brain as you wrote, (ex: the ping pong ball from temple to temple etc...) I will get a feeling of tighness, or congestion, is that also your experience ?

From there what happens next, step by step ? Where does the feeling of being stroke by a feather comes in ?

This will help in knowing if I'm progessing in the right direction.Also you lately wrote about the crow area, do you work that area in the same manner as the brow (ping-pong), and does the area of stimulation as to be precise, pin pointed, or just the general area ?

Great reply Frank! Just curious - how did you initiate your cannonball exit? Was it just spontaneous?All the best,M

Originally, it came about from reading Monroe's JOB over 20 years ago. I posted a while back about how I came across this book by chance, and thought the guy was either insane or had caught onto something. I gave it a fair go and, to my surprise, began getting projection symptoms. The cannonball-exit came about as a result.

At the time, I considered this rather violent projection experience to be how it was, so to speak. After all, I didn't know any different. It is only relatively recently I started taking my Astral experiences more seriously and began trying to slow the whole process down to try and make more sense of it.

hi Frank,I found your comments really interesting, because the pain i feel is such a regular effect that I just assumed everyone felt it. You posted last week about acupuncture. Can I ask whether you have felt pain from acupuncture stimulation?

I'm sorry but I think you might be confusing me with someone else as, to my knowledge, I never posted on acupuncture. Though I do take your point as regards your assumption. With my early cannonball-exit I just assumed that was the way it was.

Unfortunately, as much as I would like to, I cannot really comment with any authority on your other questions as I'm not into doing any kind of energy-work... such as that described in RB's NEW system, for example.

I'm working on the "brain method" and could you explain the evolution of the sensations, feelings, up to the projection.

Quebec: To be honest I don't know what the "brain method" is, exactly. Someone else coined the term which seems to have stuck.

A while ago I set off down a road which attempted to find an answer to the question, "Where do the vibrations come from?" They seemed to begin at the head, but with me they'd build in intensity so quickly I had no chance to study them. So I began trying all kinds of techniques to try and somehow ignite these vibrations, but in a controlled way; hence the ping-pong exercise, and a few others, with which I had limited degrees of success.

At the same time, I was working on several imagination-based techniques, coupled with the Gateway Wave-1 CD, which I posted about at length. I developed these techniques to the point where I could fairly reliably Phase from Physical to Astral most mornings - without feeling any kind of vibrations at all. So I forgot about the question of vibrations for a while.

I thought that my later work had overwritten the older stuff: in much the same way as when you load a newer version of Windows, for example. The new version overwrites the old version to the extent where you can no-longer boot from the old program.

Lately, however, I got curious about the matter of vibrations again after re-reading Monroe's two later books: FJ's and UJ. It struck me that even though Monroe speaks about Phasing, he does describe feeling vibrations as well. So I set-out to try and form a mix between my new-found Phasing skills and my old cannonball-exit.

My attempts at doing this were surprisingly successful. Now, my projection experience follows pretty much exactly as Monroe describes. Though with nowhere near the same degree of reliability (yet). In Monroe's case he would project with such ease that many times he'd just simply want to sleep instead. (Oh, how I would dearly love to "suffer" this condition!)

Just thinking about experiencing vibrations, while undergoing the Phasing process, flicked a switch somewhere and I began to feel an inkling at first; after which they came back into the projection equation more and more. But somehow my later-developed Phasing skills had completely changed the nature of the way I experienced the vibrations. For a start, they began in a far more controlled way from about the Monroe Focus 21 state. And I discovered also they did in fact come about from a point at the top of the head each time.

From practice, I found I could trace their origins back further. I felt them begin as a tiny mental swooshing feeling like someone just stroked my brain with a feather. Since then, I traced the feeling back further still. The whole process begins with a simple mental "knowing" feeling; then a kind of mental null; then a weird sort of creaking sound; then the feather-stroking feeling.

The length of time at each of these stages can change slightly. I might get two or three mental null feelings, then maybe just one creaking sound, followed by several feather strokes; or just an inkling of a feather stroke, one mental null and several creaking sounds; or whatever combination of the three.

The mental Knowing feeling happens when my physical body has relaxed to the extent where my focal point of awareness has shifted from behind my physical eyes and is now focussed within the expanse of my mind. Though my latest studies do strongly indicate that the reverse is more the case, i.e. the act of shifting my focal point of awareness *is* what causes my physical body to duck-out of the equation. Which is something I've suspected for quite a while. But I've only recently been able to experience the onset of the process slow enough and reliable enough to make any kind of concrete sense of it all.

I found that shifting my focal point of awareness from behind my physical eyes to be the trickiest part in the whole process!!! It still presents me with quite a stumbling block and it's the last major hurdle I need to overcome. Problem is, it doesn't just have to shift: it needs to shift in a particular way. And that's the darned tricky part. Well, for me that is.

quote:On working the brain as you wrote, (ex: the ping pong ball from temple to temple etc...) I will get a feeling of tighness, or congestion, is that also your experience ?

Not that I can remember.

quote:From there what happens next, step by step ? Where does the feeling of being stroke by a feather comes in ?

This has been covered above. But if you need more info then by all means ask and I'll do my best to explain further.

quote:This will help in knowing if I'm progessing in the right direction.Also you lately wrote about the crow area, do you work that area in the same manner as the brow (ping-pong), and does the area of stimulation as to be precise, pin pointed, or just the general area ?

I no-longer use the original exercises. As outlined above, the Gateway work took over. When I recently came to think about vibrations again, they were far more controlled than previously.

Concerning the vibrations, it is now my opinion that the vibrations are in fact 'always on' but we are not aware of them. When we shift our point of awareness we slowly become aware of them, they feel more powerful as we focus on them.I think this is what is happening with 'energy raising' techniques; there actually isnt any 'energy raising' going on as its always there anyway. Instead the technigues are designed to make you more aware of them.In this way RB and others are not wrong in their ideaas about energy raising and they do work, but they may work in a slightly different way than described.

Regards,Douglas

Logged

"It is to Scotland that we look for our idea of civilisation." -- Voltaire.

Once you have acquired the desired state with Gateway (Focus 10) how does it goes from there ?

Since you have gotten away from the exercices (ping pong etc...)what exactly do you do from there (Focus 10)? How does it evolves to the exit?

Is it just placing your awareness in the crow area for exemple, just looking at the brow to get the 3D blackness

I know that the essentials for OBE starts with relaxation and then to the body-asleep/mind-awake state. What happens from there ? Is it just staying in that state and the rest will evolve by itself to the vibrations and then the exit ?

quote:Once you have acquired the desired state with Gateway (Focus 10) how does it goes from there ?

Since you have gotten away from the exercices (ping pong etc...)what exactly do you do from there (Focus 10)? How does it evolves to the exit?

Is it just placing your awareness in the crow area for exemple, just looking at the brow to get the 3D blackness ??

As to your questions, I feel the process is not quite so cut and dried as you think. After a *lot* of practice I have pretty much reached the stage where I can hold myself at the various mental-focus states originally labelled by Monroe. Though please bear in mind I always said that I don't have any natural talent for this kind of thing. It always seems that each step takes me ages of trial and error. What I'm getting at is perhaps I'm not the best of yardsticks.

I doubt you will get to a position where you are at Focus 10 or Focus 12, and so forth, stuck as to what to do next. The process is largely one that starts flowing and will continue to flow if you let it. You see, a lot of the work I've been involved with is learning how to try and slow the process down. And the same has been true with a number of people I've been in contact with.

The various mental focus states come about like motorway signposts. In the sense that from Focus 10 you get a sensation of mental movement like you were travelling. As you travel you become enveloped with particular mental scenarios that have certain qualities about them. The tendency, I found, is people will generally either pass through a state, or get zapped out of it.

I no-longer think about placing my awareness in any particular region of my head. The simplest way I can explain it, is I just shift my focus of attention into the region of my mind. Okay, I still find that far easier say than to do. And it's one of the last remaining hurdles I face in my quest to project at will.

The key element to achieving this, I found, is getting your mental focus away from the backs of your physical eyes.

The Gateway Wave-1 CD acts for me now as a kind of mental primer. In that first I'll listen to it a couple of times, and go through a mental rundown of the like I describe in the sticky-post. This acts for me as a kind of mental stretching exercise. Just like dancers do, for example, to warm-up their muscles before a performance.

Oh, one mental rundown I found particularly effective is to imagine you are in a small audience and Monroe is facing you a short distance away, on a stage, verbalising the instructions.

Another exercise I often do is imagine a shape, any shape it doesn't matter. Perceive that shape in mind for a few seconds then shift your focus of attention to the backs of your eyes. So you are looking at the backs of your closed eyes. Then shift your focus back to within your mind and perceive the shape. After a while you will perceive a distinct shift in focus. Once you recognise the shift, then practice holding the mental shift within the mind. This is a bit tricky because you'll probably have these little blank moments; during which your mental focus will slip to the backs of your eyes again.

Once you can hold that mental focus, next you simply feel what you are presented with. You might say, "Just blackness". But if you perceive more closely, you might get the idea that all is not quite jet black. Again, when I say "blackness" I'm speaking of a situation where you are not simply trying to focus on the backs of your eyelids and all you are seeing is some kind of residual vision.

You might perceive an area of greyness, or other areas that are lighter than black. These may seem to come and go at random. Once you become more adept at doing this, you will have fewer of those annoying little blank moments where your mental focus drops back. As such, there will come a point where these inner effects will capture your attention to the extent you are no-longer focussed on the physical body.

This is Focus 10.

In other words, Focus 10 is basically the same state as when a person becomes engrossed by a movie on TV. Mental attention has been captivated to the extent where there is no-longer any sensation of the room the person is sitting in, the sofa they are sitting on, or their physical body which reclines on the sofa.

In obe terms, you are no-longer aware of the room you are laying down in, or the bed you lay on, or your physical body laying on the bed. Your entire mental focus has been captivated by what is going on within you, mentally. As I say, this is Focus 10.

Next comes Focus 12 where you will find that the areas of lighter than black become more distinct. The blackness can take on a velvety or a liquid quality, or you may perceive all kinds of other textures. You might perceive outline drawings of all kinds of shapes; or what seem like faces of people or animals; or whispy foggy colours that appear to swirl around you. As this scenario develops there comes a sensation of mental movement; a kind of forwards progression that takes you onto the next phase.

Each transition tends to be fairly seamless in that one will naturally flow into the other over a period of several seconds. However, at first, progress will probably be scuppered again by the physical eyes in that they tend to try and snatch glances of the various effects you are perceiving. Once you can get the eyes out of the projection equation, you should be able to effect a seamless and controled transition from Physical to Astral.

At first, though, chances are you might perceive a forwards mental movement and next instant you might see some fleeting Astral scene: at which point your protective sense of awareness kicks in and zaps you back to Physical. Which is frustrating, but at least it confirms you are making progress.

There can also come a period where you go through what is a frustrating phase of, "hindsight realisation". This is where a person enters, say, the Focus 12 state... but because it is all very unfamiliar they obviously cannot recognise it. Finding itself in unfamiliar territory, the protective sense of awareness promptly zaps the person back to Physical. At which point they suddenly realise, in hindsight, they projected to an unfamiliar state.

I think by moving your physical you shifted your astral body as well and it just lost connection. Sometimes when I experience myself splitting and I don't want to (like when I have to get up and go to work or feel too exhausted) I turn my body and the "sensations" go away.

Although by now I already know of the things you speak about in this particular post (mostly from you, partly from my phasing attempt yesterday - I'm not trying to phase today, I want to let that insect vision a bit more time to fade out, and it's the holocaust memorial day here, so there's an increased potential of negativity during the attempt (as my subconscious is not as cheerful as usually)), it's amazing how helpful can a reaffirmation be. For instance, the part about keeping your focus away from your eyes; even though it's quite obvious, both from logic and experience, it's nice and beneficial to hear someone experienced say that instead of just realizing that by yourself.

I kinda chanced across this method (never heard of it until just now)while doing some sort of mind clearing meditation.The way i reach the vibrations is just by concentrating on not thinking. I normally get the the state where i begin feel the vibrations very quickly (5-10 mins) but more often than not my mind ends up wandering without me realising.I dont really focus on the brain but i do end up feeling a sort of tightness around the spot on the forehead where the third eye is supposed to be and somewhere right in the middle of the brain slightly towards the back.

Ive not managed to project yet. although its really only for the last week or two that i have been trying.

I am new to astral projection and am having some problems understanding the old monroe technique (I posted it in detail in the OOBE discussions forum.. the one from "Journeys Out of the Body") and was wondering if you could give me a technique of the brain method I could try.

I don't have gateway tapes or anything like that, and I always have a hard time visualizing and relaxing into trance (usually it helps to just sleep and then wake up 4 hours earlier, stay awake for maybe 10 minutes and then start to drift back off to sleep and enter hypnagogic state, though I am unsure of how to recognize I am in that state.. but I would probably just keep practicing an AP technique over and over again until I got some kind of response from it).

My road plan to learning AP is to first somehow induce the vibrations but so far I haven't found a technique that has worked except projection out of a lucid dream (which doesn't occur very often, and only lasts about 1-2 seconds).

i have never tried to AP before but have had a growing interest in it over the past year or so and have read many articles

i recently read your brain method(superb btw)

this is what happened on my frist attempt

firstly i started at my feet and visualised golden light coming from my feet they i worked up my body all the way to the head - once there the whole process started without any will from me - the buzzing the throbbing in my head above my right temple and then i felt as if i was out of my body but i had no sight - i was terrified then i felt myself go back i got a metalic taste in my mouth and i felt sick to my stomach i also felt heavy and had pins and neeles in my body

i was most aprehensive about what would happen and who i would see when i left - this is ultimately what stopped me - can anyone advise on this - are there evil spirits etc lurking once you come of your body -are you protected in some way?

Apologies for continuing this one, but I would like to try and make this into a coherent method for phasing, one which is less complex than the TMI instructions and requires no hemi-sync.

If I remember rightly, with your original method you used to focus between your eyes, the brow chakra in mystical terms. Did you also focus on the top of your head, the crown chakra, or is this where the vibrations started?

When the vibrations did start, did they only extend as far as your head, or did they extend to your whole body?

I know you used to phase directly into the Astral, was this a smooth, seamless process where you suddenly found yourself in the Astral, and was the Astral envirnment totally solid and real, as per your current methods?

Apologies for the questions, but this does seem like an excellent method, and I just want to ensure nothing is left out.

This sounds awesome. I haven't tried the so-called "Brain Method" yet, but I also always feel a deep pressure on my brow, where the third-eye is, after a solid 30 minutes of deep relaxation. I'm going to experiment tonight with Omega's color shift MIND AWAKE ORANGE/ BODY ASLEEP BLUE method. I think together with more focus on the actual brow or crown chakras this might work out really well. Not to beat a dead horse, but could anyone here suggest an exit method they have found to be easy to perform. I haven't AP'd yet and I've been wondering if my exit technique has something to do with it. Thanks.

During meditation yesterday I focused all my awareness on my Brow Chakra and after awhile it started to kind of pulsate. I know what vibrations feel like and it didn't feel like that, it was kind of a low rumbling sound. It didn't spread to the rest of the body and I didn't try to move it around. It just kept up that steady pulsating, it was not the heartbeat either. Anyone have any idea what this could be and exactly how I should handle it next time? Thanx.

yesterday morning i woke up directy to the projection process, i could feel a segment of my brain throbbing and the more i focused on it, the more intense the process became, (e.g noises and vibrations) but i changed position to my back and i couldnt get it again, i beleive i definatly would have projected if i never moved.

i think Frank has spoke about this "brain method" before.

so on the night i decided to skip my usual energy raising work but instead, focus on my brain and try to "look" for that part of my brain which triggers the process. I never actually got it but still, after about 5-10 minuites i felt intense vibrations and energy surges which lasted for about 20 minuites, which is much quicker than my usual process - THEN i did energy raising etc

other people should try using M.B.A and focus on the brain, it got me into a trance 40 minuites quicker than how i used to do it. Hold your focus there until all of a sudden the vibrations just *start*

once i am in this intense vibration stage, how do actually get out??? the rope method seemed harder when i feel the vibrations.